Kasi Lemmons

Kasi Lemmons

Kasi Lemmons (; born Karen Lemmons; February 24, 1961) is an American film director and actress. She began her career with roles in Spike Lee's School Daze (1988), followed by the comedy Vampire's Kiss (1989), before being cast as Ardelia Mapp in Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs (1991). She subsequently co-starred with Virginia Madsen in the horror film Candyman (1992). Lemmons made her directorial debut with 1997's Eve's Bayou, followed by Dr. Hugo (1998), The Caveman's Valentine (2001), Talk to Me (2007), Black Nativity (2013), and her highest-grossing film, 2019's Harriet, about abolitionist Harriet Tubman. She was described by film scholar Wheeler Winston Dixon as "an ongoing testament to the creative possibilities of film."

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